Blogs from Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa, Africa - page 12

Easily viewable from almost anywhere on campus, Stellenboschberg was the closest mountain to the university for hiking. The entrance to the trials was right behind the university fitness center making it a popular place for walking and jogging. The first week I was in Stellenbosch, my roommate Theresa, Grant, Matt, and I went to check it out. Although the bottom of the mountain was a really easy climb, as we got further up the angle became steeper and steeper. We had only made it to the first peak when we decided to call it quits. The following day I quickly learned how out of shape my body was. After a month or two Theresa and I decided to give the mountain another go, this time with Kelvin and Jenny. We made it past the first peak ... read more

happy turkey day everyone!!! hope you are all having a great sunday and enjoying lots of turkey and stuffing...yum. we'll be thinking about you and sad we're missing it. they don't celebrate thanksgiving here so we'll be missing out on a delicious meal but it might be a good thing...we've had our fair share of indulgence with food and drinks! well, we finally managed to get a car thanks to nick! he called every car rental place in the book and walked all over the place trying to find an automatic for us to drive to stellenbosh. we ended up getting it from a guy who called another guy, who called some guy named mr. kim, who called some guy named marvin?! i dunno...the whole thing was totally sketch but a car picked us up yesterday ... read more

OF MOUNTAINS AND VINEYARDS or A TASTE OF WINE AND GRASSES Stellenbosch Mountain rises in one immediate thrust toward the sky. She takes up the low spotlight of sunset and shows off her crags and precipices like the consummate professional. She understands the nuances of light and shading and timing. If a geologic neophyte were looking to learn the drama of being a true mountain, he would come to see her. There are no real foothills before her, no geologic introductions as you approach her from the sea. There is only a sudden spine of treeless rock that juts upwards. Vineyards slope away gently in all directions from the base of Stellenbosch Mountain, rows of perfectly strung vines that give the impression of thousands of little people all standing in perfect rows with their arms over ... read more

My last entry I left off at the booze cruise. We need to go back to our quiz night in Malawi for the start of this event. Firstly we picked a name out of the hat to buy clothes for. I coincidentally got Clinton, Clinton picked Nil and Sara (the American) picked me. On our way to Zambia we stopped off at a market where we were told that the people there know and expect us to buy hideous clothing so they come well prepared. In fact, one of the guys sales pitch was "These are very, very ugly - look awful.. want to buy?" When we arrived we were, as promised, swamped with guys with garbage bags full of scaringly hideous clothing. For Clinton I grabbed leopard print lingerie (crotch and all) with a fluffy ... read more

After Kayamundi, we finally went to Jonkershoek. It was a long uphill bike ride. There were pretty big dark trees creating nice shade that allowed for mossy green vegetation. We had a picnic and then went into the park. It was a nice sunny day and inside the preserve there was a great view of the mountains. We went to Eeverste Waterval (first waterfall) and sat for a bit. Then we decided we were too tired to go the remaining 6 km to the second (tweede?) waterfall. Our ride back through the park was downhill and really bumpy. It was like mountain biking...except we had the wrong kind of bikes and no helmets. We went to the Neil Ellis winery for a tasting on the way back. It was very pretty there was a beautiful lawn ... read more